Love and War
by AnnieLeigh
Summary: After breaking Regina's curse, Snow White and Prince Charming decide to retake their land, which is now inhabited by ogres. After 28 years without rulers, the people are help- and defenseless against them, and the royal family has to make a decision – one that appears to be more difficult than anticipated. AU post season 1
1. Prologue

_So, here we are. Finally, I've decided to get my lingering love and adoration for Captain Swan and Once Upon A Time in general out in the open and not only write Fan Fictions for myself, but to publish them, too. If you find any major spelling mistakes, I apologise in advance, though I hope my office programme went over it thoroughly enough to be readable._

 _Please let me know what you think!_

 **Prologue**

"I'm so not calling you Mom and Dad", Emma stated as she watched her parents (which still sounded weird in her head given the fact that she was technically older than them) pack their belongings, which seemed rather futile to her – why would the King and Queen need cell phones and walkie-talkies in a land where technology wasn't even a thing? Their wardrobes in the palace were surely still filled with clothes; though, on second thought, the moths must have gotten the best of those during the last 28 years.

"And noone's forcing you", David scolded. She could tell that he was sort of disappointed, especially since Henry had taken to calling him Gramps the moment the curse had been broken. It was just too much for Emma to wrap her head around, and the fact that she was going to be 'next in line to the throne' didn't make matters any better.

Princess. Her Royal Highness, Princess Emma of Misthaven, if you wanted to be exact, making Henry His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Misthaven, and Regina Her Highness, Dowager Queen, though Emma didn't know how she'd take the news of being deprived of her rule. Though she shouldn't have reason to complain since she could be happy to be returning with the people, after all. Had Emma been in Snow's place, she'd have left the witch behind, tied up in her house or elsewhere, just tight enough to keep her in Storybrooke as everyone else stepped through the portal home.

Emma's bag had been quickly packed, just a few things being important enough to join the journey to the Enchanted Forest. A dream catcher, a few sets of clothes, nothing fancy – except for her baby blanket, that was. As she had stated before, she was not the sentimental type, save a few exceptions, the key chain hanging around her neck being one of those.

"So this place..." Emma stuttered, struggling with the names and places and kingdoms.

"The Enchanted Forest?", Snow suggested, stacking a few shirts into a suitcase. "Misthaven?" Emma shook her head.

David cut in, stepping between them and looking from one set of eyes to the other. "You mean the palace?" She nodded and soon found herself fumbling with the key chain. "Beautiful place. Though I'm sure it will need refurbishing after twenty-eight years of not being dusted." Furrowing his eyebrows, he searched his daughter's face for some sign of what she actually wanted to know.

Clearly uncomfortable to even think about the childhood she could have had, Emma hesitated, not realising how Snow slowed down her packing and turned to her. "My nursery... is it there, too?" She didn't figure the quivering of her lower lip and chin until she saw the dumbfounded looks her parents gave her, and quickly shook her head as if to just shake away the tears welling up in her eyes and making that terrible sound only she could hear, biting into her consciousness with a cruel sting.

"Well... if noone changed anything, probably, yes", Snow said softly, ducking her head and looking at Emma from below. "But you don't have to see it if you don't want to, right, David?" Not even letting him speak up, she went on: "You'll have other quarters until we've redone your rooms. After all, the crib is probably a bit too small for you."

She couldn't deny the smile tugging at the corners at her mouth as she watched her mother go on and on about what should be changed around the palace and how she wanted things to look, at some point just turning away and trying to make sense of everything. She would have to learn a great deal of things in what seemed to be no time at all, and since she knew she wouldn't fit in as a typical princess, taking very much after her parents, she hoped they would take to teaching her swordfighting and shooting arrows instead of dances and etiquette.

When Blue opened the portal the next morning, Snow and Charming were the first to step through, and Emma, deciding to wait and make sure everyone made it through before following, watched Regina – her step-grandmother, she reminded herself – and Henry follow suit, then the dwarves, Ruby and Granny, Mr. Gold and Belle, and at some point the reassuring smile she'd forced herself to put on wore off as the realisation that these were now her people hit. She might not be responsible for them as much as her parents, but being the Savior, breaking the curse, hat made her as much their mascot as Snow and Charming.

It was only when the Blue Fairy lightly touched her arm that Emma woke from the frozen expression she'd shown the last minutes and passed through the already shrinking opening with her.


	2. I

_Firstly, a shout out to_ _ **htwoh66**_ _, thanks so much for your encouragement! And, as you wished, I continued writing, as my fickle muse decided to stick around a bit. As to_ _ **botany957**_ _, yes, this is set just after season one, magic has been brought back so the blue fairy could open the portal home._

 _So, without further ado, I present the first "real" chapter!_

 **I.**

It had been almost a week since they'd made their way back to the palace, which, in turn, meant that this was the third morning that Emma woke in the rooms her parents had given her for the time being during the refurbishing of the nursery. They'd kept Regina close, which had been mostly due to the mistrust Snow and Charming still held against her, and even Henry had his doubts about her being able to reign herself in. It had been a quite effective strategy to tell her exactly that, Emma had figured that quickly. Henry was the only thing – or rather, person – Regina still loved, and with him showing her that he'd only want to be close to her if she behaved herself, there was no way she'd still threaten Snow and her family.

There was too much to be done to think about wardrobe right now, so she was, as she had always been, in her leather jacket, boots, a white shirt and jeans when she walked down the hallways of the palace, keeping herself from admiring how diligently the dwarves were already working on restoring it to its former glory with Gepetto as she walked past them, waving her hand in a short greeting. Approaching the breakfast room after a few turns, she could hear her parents and Regina arguing through the thick wood of the door, and hesitated to enter for a moment.

Apart from Henry, who was sitting quietly on his chair and waiting for breakfast to be served, everyone was standing, Snow rounding on Regina as David leaned is forearms on the backrest of what Emma assumed was going to be his chair when they finally settled down. He was also the first to notice her entering the room, the noise of the door drowned by the voices of Snow and Regina. "So you're suggesting we just sit here and let your magic do the work? I don't think so!"

A dismissive gesture from Regina caught Emma's eye, and for a fraction of a second she wondered if the Dowager Queen even wanted to get anywhere with this argument or if her aim was solely to annoy her stepdaughter. "So you'd rather send thousands of innocent men to their deaths?"

Emma angled her head towards David as he raised his voice the first time she could actually understand it. "That's not the point", he interjected, looking up from the probably highly interesting spot on the table he'd been staring at beforehand. "We want to beat them without magic. With honour. What we're lacking is the manpower."

"What's going on? Three days and we're talking about sending men to their deaths?" She walked past her mother and Regina to the place next to Henry, sitting down on her chair and ruffling his hair. "I thought the ogre attack on our way here was a one time thing?" She had decidedly avoided the word Home so far when referring to the Summer Palace, and given her past, she was sure, noone could blame her for that. There hadn't been much of a home for her anywhere the past 28 years, and even though she was with her family, her parents and son, she didn't feel as though this was going to change anytime soon. She might have been born here, but everything felt strange to her.

Regina just scoffed, turning her head away from Emma, and before Snow could speak, it was David who spoke up. "Sadly, it wasn't. There've been attacks all over the countryside the last days", he explained before Snow continued.

"You see, time in Storybrooke might have stood still, but here, a lot of things can happen in twenty-eight years." Emma gulped, not sure whether she still had the appetite for breakfast, but before she knew, the doors flew open and a few maids entered. The fact that they were being served the probably most decadent breakfast she'd had in ages made her feel even more guilty about the people in the country who weren't even protected from the ogres roaming the woods.

"So? What happened during the ogre wars, weren't humans able to beat them once before?" Furrowing her eyebrows, she watched everyone taking their seats at the table as she mused, "If they were once, they can win again?"

She saw Regina roll her eyes and shaking her head and, after an inquisitive glance, asked: "What? Isn't that what was in the book? How else should all those other stories have worked out if the wars hadn't ended in human victory?"

"We... had help", Snow admitted, being the first to put some of the scrambled eggs and bacon on her plate. "You see, kingdoms work together. But right now, this is an anarchic wasteland. Nobody will help us if we can't give them anything in return."

Dumbfounded, Emma watched everyone filling their plates, she herself remaining the only one not eating yet. "And what would that be? You've merged two kingdoms together, come on! It can't be that hard to find something! You are the ones who taught me that there's always hope."

Pressing her lips together, Snow glanced at David and then her daughter. "Usually, such treaties are sealed with a wedding." She cleared her throat. "Which is clearly not an option, since there aren't any princes out there. And... and our only opportunity would be you or... there aren't any little girls to get Henry engaged to."

For a second, Emma saw her son making a face at the possibility of getting engaged at his young age, and smiled compassionately. "What about the Maritime Kingdom?"

"Not a warfaring country. They're too busy keeping pirates at bay to even think of helping us against the ogres", Regina rejected.

Emma glinted at her parents. "The Northern Kingdom? Isn't that your mother's home country? Surely, they'll help her daughter retake her throne..." Snow's face already told the tale before her lips even parted.

"I don't think that's an option. They are struggling with the ogres, too, there's no point in even asking."

"Ask Rumplestilzkin, then!", Emma suggested, her hand hitting the table a little too hard as she began losing her patience. Not that there had been much of that to begin with.

"Are you insane?" Reginas voice roared across the table. "He lies, he tricks everyone into deals they only make because they're desperate, and you want to entrust him with the fate of your parents' kingdom?!"

She shook her head. "This is not a question of wanting, but something has to happen here." Her fingernails scratched the surface of the wooden table, green eyes fixed on the map hanging on the opposite wall. "And what about that one, over there?"

All eyes followed, and Henry was the first one to read out loud what was written across the mountains. "Arendelle?" It was on the other side of an ocean, which made it rather improbable for ogres to be a problem there, and even if there was no prince, anyone could trade things like wood, livestock, and other valuable goods, not to mention the fairydust the dwarves mined.

"Haven't been there in a while", Snow admitted. "Last thing I heard the King and Queen died on sea." An apologetic look found Emma, who looked more dead set by the minute.

King Charming, on the other hand, seemed caught up in his thoughts, smiling at the map as though remembering something about Arendelle that he hasn't told anyone yet. "Oh, I think we could make some friends there.

She looked at David, waiting for his eyes to leave the map. "You wanna be a Dad?", she asked challengingly. "Could use a few swordfighting lessons before leading armies into battle."

"Let's not be premature about this." Reginas barely constrained anger – though, to Emma, she always seemed angry, so what was the harm? - let everyone's heads snap back to her. "Shouldn't you ask first?"

Grabbing a piece of toast and spreading some butter over it, Emma nodded, leaning back when she bit into it. She deliberately spoke with a mouth full of food when she answered. "I'm not much of a princess, but I could make one hell of a military commander. I'm my parents' daughter, after all, might as well show them." It didn't take much to realise the awe Henry was in when his eyes found hers, smiling proudly at his Mom's courage.

It took only a few hours for David to take Emma up on her offer of letting him be the Dad he always wanted to be, and when she entered the courtyard, he threw her a sparring sword.

"So, let's see how much of a Charming you are", he snickered as she picked it up, her hair tied into a ponytail so it didn't get in her way.

To be honest, at first, she sucked at swordfighting, though David did his best to lighten up the mood when she had to yield for the seventh time after only a few seconds of fighting. Telling her stories of how he'd lost his first swordfights against a girl who was a good bit younger than her, Joan, before he'd even met Snow, before he'd been a prince, back when all he'd ever thought to be was a lowly shepherd. The laughing almost made the long line of defeats bearable.

It wasn't until the early evening hours, after a short lunch pause and a few more laughs, yields, and clumsy stumbles that Emma disarmed her father and he, smiling his brightest smile, raised his hands in defeat.

 _And a big thanks to the guest who already reviewed this chapter! I've been looking for that piece of information on the wiki and couldn't find it there, thank you for helping me out there!_


	3. II

_Thanks, firstly, to those who have reviewed this story so far, it really means a lot to me! And, as to the question when we'd meet Killian, I think this chapter will cover it just nicely! I'm planning to update this Fanfic about once a week, though that can really, really vary since the real life, sadly, doesn't always accomodate._

 _Secondly, I am kind of unsure about my writing and looking for a native speaker of English to do some beta-ing for me, so if anyone of you is interested, I'd be thrilled to get a PM by someone willing to put up with me._

When the magic swept over the land, Killian was once more in the safe bubble Cora had conjured up. Every day the past 28 years, he'd checked every looking glass he could get a hold of, making sure he was still devilishly handsome and not a sixty-year-old man by the time he could get his vengeance. Fighting the Dark One as a mere mortal was hard enough, and he didn't want to give fighting him as an old man a try. And yes, he was still the devilishly handsome cutthroat pirate he'd been when the curse had taken most of the population of the Enchanted Forest to this strange land without magic.

That fateful day, he'd thought an earthquake was going to destroy what little buildings were left, but after a questioning look towards Cora, who had looked just a bit _too_ content for his liking, he'd figured that it was over, all of it. The curse, the blockade of travel between the realms, everything. Things were back to normal – and so was his plan of action.

Killian had been anxious to get his hands on that dagger for centuries, and then was all the more aggravated by the fact that _Her Majesty_ hadn't agreed to immediately setting sail to wait whether or not the people would come back. And most rightly so, for the next day a purple cloud, spreading like an avalanche, had rolled over woods and hills and mountains, the overgrown fields and castles. It hadn't taken long for them to find out what this, ultimately, meant.

That was when Cora had left him without so much as a goodbye. She didn't need his help in getting to Regina any longer, and while there were quite a few things he could have had use for – especially her magic – there had been no way of making her stay.

He'd already known everything necessary – and more – to not only comprehend what was going on with the magic, but also to grasp what to expect of this new Misthaven. Not only were the bandit and the shepherd back in power (not that Killian of all people were to judge them), but they'd probably also brought the bloody Savior home. And he couldn't wait to see what that one had in store for him.

Twenty-eight years were quite long a time to anyone with a normal feeling of how it went by. To Killian it had seemed an eternity passed in the blink of an eye after centuries of Neverland's seas. And, anticipating how sweet it would taste to finally get to the Crocodile, it would be worth the wait.

They'd set sail the very morning Cora had left, returning to the seas of the Enchanted Kingdoms to pillage and plunder every ship of the kingdom, long crumbled into fragments, that had once been ruled by the coward who'd cost the Jolly her first captain. Back, when she'd still gone by Jewel of the Realm, that was. When he and Liam had been Captain and Lieutenant Jones, sailing in the King's navy and taking that King's orders.

He'd thought about returning to Neverland, to be honest, quite a few times. It was the only place where he wouldn't age, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. But then, where was the fun in doing what he'd been doing for the last three bloody centuries? After all, the Dark One was here, all Killian would have to do was lure him into the land without magic again and then bury his hook in his chest as he'd done the day Milah had died. Just this time, the cold metal would fulfil its purpose, if things went according to plan.

Seeing what had happened to the land that hadn't been included in the safe bubble the day the curse had been cast, all overgrown villages and crumbling castles, made him wonder whether there was much for the people who'd been taken away to go back to. For twenty-eight years, wildlife had taken over the woods, and the ogres had returned more violent than ever, and it was one of the many occasions that he was glad to be on a ship, safe from them, since they certainly didn't seem the seafaring type.

On board, the crew was busying themselves with swabbing the deck, cleaning out every last corner of the ship, making grand plans to wait for the great kingdoms to rebuild and then take their riches. They did have a point there – the armies were certainly not half as well-manned as before, and, after nearly three decades of being cursed to a land without magic, they would have other priorities... for now. At least, Killian counted on it, as did a part of his crew, hoping to get a piece of that enormous cake, large enough for them to settle down and retire from pirating. Well, the latter was not what he saw in the future for himself, but riches, taken from those who didn't need them, were a nice thing to have if one intended to get their hands on a magic bean or two.

Honestly, he hadn't given it much thought what would happen once he'd killed Rumplestilzkin. Perhaps, he'd live out his days drinking rum on an island, or he'd just keep pirating until it cost him what little he had left – his life. But to be united with Liam once more, after centuries without anyone to hold onto, that would be, as Pan would've put it, an awfully big adventure. He knew Liam would've abhorred him for becoming who he was today, at least up to the moment he'd almost died of the plant their King had so generously sent them to bring from Neverland, promising to make them heroes to be known until the end of time.

Instead, there had been no heroes in Neverland, none except maybe Baelfire. The boy who'd looked so splendidly like Milah that Killian's heart had gone soft on him in an instant, at least long enough to let him linger on the Jolly when what he should've done from the beginning on was to deliver him to the lost boys.

No – his honour had demanded of him to at least try and be a father figure to the child, up to the day he'd pushed the pirate away hard and far enough to make him give in to his inner darkness once more. A part of him still resented himself for that – leaving a boy, abandoned by his mother and, ultimately, his father to fend for himself in a land that knew no happiness. After all, he'd had his fair share of that himself after his own father had left him and Liam.

What a family they would have made, Milah, Bae, and Killian. She'd often talked of going back for her son when he was older, old enough to hold and swing a sword, old enough to become a pirate himself, to break the tradition of cowardice lingering in his paternal line. They would have shaped him into a fine man, he was sure.

And all that froze into even sharper focus what the Dark One had once taken from him; it had been more than just a hand, and the everlasting mark on his forearm reminded Hook of just that, spurring on his hatred on those days when even the memory of that dreadful day didn't seem enough to keep him going.

It was on the third day that Killian discovered something Cora had generously left behind since she herself had no further use for it. The cuffs they'd intended to use to climb the beanstalk, he remembered, but not how she'd come to hide them in his quarters under a loose floorboard where she'd placed a small bag for storage. He probably wouldn't have been surprised, after finding it, to see a still beating heart there, too, but Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts did not leave such a treasure behind. No, she knew that not all treasure was silver and gold, and that control was sometimes worth more than all the riches in the world. Who would've thought that wanting it all for her daughter would make her lose her in the end?

The first ship he saw on the water, after days of aimlessly sailing about, carried the flag of King George's kingdom, the light blue, white and gold clashing with the red the sky was painted in during the hours of dusk. King George, who'd lost his people to a prince who was not his son and a bandit who'd been hunted in her own kingdom. King George, the father-in-law to Snow White, and grandfather of the Savior.

Oh yes, this promised to get very interesting, he decided as he gave the orders to keep an eye on them from a distance and get some rest for a few hours. This was the first ship they'd plunder in nearly three decades – so they'd better catch them off-guard instead of just barging in on them at dusk when the other ship's crew could easily see them coming. After all, Killian couldn't be too sure about how many men there were on that ship, and what it was carrying.

Smiling, he left the helm to Smee and retreated to his quarters to rest awhile. He didn't do much of that, however, the thrill of anticipation tingling in his fingers and urging him to just grab his sword and take that ship by himself. Therefore, it wasn't much of a surprise that the moment he decided that they'd waited long enough, a predatory smirk found its way on his face when they caught up.


End file.
